Morlan History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Ireland

The ancient roots of the Morlan family name are in the Anglo-Saxon culture. The name Morlan comes from when the family lived on a moor, which is a tract of open, uncultivated ground which is usually grown over with heather and coarse grasses and has a poor, peaty soil. The surname Morlan literally means dweller by the moor-land. The surname Morlan belongs to the class of topographic surnames, which were given to people who resided near physical features such as hills, streams, churches, or types of trees. 1

Early Origins of the Morlan family

The surname Morlan was first found in Westmorland. The Mauley branch of the family claim Ugthorpe in the North Riding of Yorkshire as their ancient ancestral home. "This was an ancient demesne of the crown, and is styled in Domesday Book Ughetorp; the Mauleys became lords here at an early period, and from them the manor and estate descended by marriage to the Bigods, and afterwards to the Ratcliffes, by whom the whole was sold in parcels." 2

"The first of this name we can trace is Peter de Mauley, a Poictevin, Baron of Mulegrave, and Lord of Doncaster, in Yorkshire. He appears to have been an adherent of King John, and to have acquired his English estates in marriage with Isabel, daughter and heir of Robert de Thurnham, whose wife was Joanna Fossard, heiress of Mulqrave, a descendant, probably, of the Domesday Nigel. Camden says, that "by marriage Peter de Mauley came to a great inheritance at Mulgrave, and that the estate was enjoyed by seven Peters, Lords de Malo-lacu." 3

"The first mention of this name occurs shortly after the death of Richard I., when John, in order to clear his way to the throne, employed his esquire Peter de Mauley, a native of Poitou, to murder his nephew, Prince Arthur, for which service De Mauley received great remuneration in the West of England. In charters, the latinization of this name, De Malo Lacu, might be supposed to be no unapt allusion to the "bad lake or pool" of blood thus unrighteously shed by the founder of the race." 4

As far as the Moreland (Morland) variant is concerned, we found the first record in Somerset: Edith de la Morland there in 1257. A few years later, Henry atte Morlonde was listed in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex in 1296 and William de Morland in the Subsidy Rolls for Yorkshire in 1327. 5

Early History of the Morlan family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Morlan research. Another 164 words (12 lines of text) covering the years 1100, 1190, 1625, 1660, 1695, 1789 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Morlan History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Morlan Spelling Variations

One relatively recent invention that did much to standardize English spelling was the printing press. However, before its invention even the most literate people recorded their names according to sound rather than spelling. The spelling variations under which the name Morlan has appeared include Morland, Morley, Moorland, Morthland, Morlay and many more.

Early Notables of the Morlan family

Notables of this surname at this time include:

Sir Samuel Morland (1625-1695), notable English academic, diplomat, spy, inventor and mathematician, made 1st Baronet Morland in 1660
the Morland family of painters and draughtsmen, the earliest of who on record is thought to be George Henry Morland (d. c. 1789)

Morlan Ranking

In the United States, the name Morlan is the 13,972^nd most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 6

Migration of the Morlan family to Ireland

Some of the Morlan family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 60 words (4 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Morlan family

At this time, the shores of the New World beckoned many English families that felt that the social climate in England was oppressive and lacked opportunity for change. Thousands left England at great expense in ships that were overcrowded and full of disease. A great portion of these settlers never survived the journey and even a greater number arrived sick, starving, and without a penny. The survivors, however, were often greeted with greater opportunity than they could have experienced back home. These English settlers made significant contributions to those colonies that would eventually become the United States and Canada. An examination of early immigration records and passenger ship lists revealed that people bearing the name Morlan arrived in North America very early: Thomas Morland, who settled in Virginia in 1650; Ed Morland, who settled in Virginia in 1663; William Morland, who came to Boston in 1762; Eleanor Morland, a bonded passenger, who arrived in Virginia in 1774.

Contemporary Notables of the name Morlan (post 1700) +

Albert E. Morlan, American politician, U.S. Consul in Belize City, 1884, 1897 7
Robert Morlan, American Political Scientist

Citations +

Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
Burke, John Bernard, The Roll of Battle Abbey. London: Edward Churton, 26, Holles Street, 1848, Print.
Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2016, January 25) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html